To my own opinion, the fine threshold between being a perfectly happy person and a totally rotten and downcast person is so small that I keep wondering if I'm happy or unhappy with my life. I don't really think anything is seriously wrong with my life. I've made some decisions, some of them turned out well, some of them turned out badly, but at the end of the day, I'm still around, I'm still alive, and I'm doing pretty well compared to many other people.
The issue that bugs me however is that in normal circumstances, I would be perfectly happy person. I have no problems keeping a positive attitude when the world seems to turn against me. However during the last weeks I think I've been severely tested - in which my life seems to be completely rotten. I'll chronologically list out all the events that happened the last week.
Day 1: Got caught in the thundershower after trying to rush to the weekly basketball meet. Found out during my travel that it was cancelled.
Day 2: After cleaning up my room, my recently bought computer didn't work. After a long diagnostic, I found out the display adapter was broken and I needed to claim it
Day 3: Went to work, found out that the connection to my webserver was broken, and I had trouble getting the material to my classroom. The cause was a broken router in the building.
Later went to claim my display adapter, which will take me two weeks to complete the process. Thought about either buying a new display adapter or computer. Decided to be cheap and get back home to retrieve my old notebook to use. Found out that the harddisk was broken after a few hours of usage. Guarantee was over, so I had to install an older harddisk and reinstall the whole system
Day 4: Found out that my keyboard Midi Control (Creative BlasterMp3 Keyboard) will not work without a Sound Blaster Live! card. The only computer that could use it was in my office, not at home. I brought the keyboard home because I wanted to practice at home.
Lost a few documents, and had to look around all over the office for ages before I found it.
Day 5: Went to go eat at a great japanese restaurant. Found the shop was closed. Later was pinned between the subway doors. Later played video games at home. Did extremely badly.
Telephoned the shop where I ordered a case for my musical instrument. The person in charge was not in the shop, so I never figured out if it was finished or not.
Day 6: Needed a file from my computer that I didn't have the display adapter. Since I don't have any spare PCI-Express cards lying around, I couldn't get it. I didn't feel like opening and removing the Harddisk so I had to live without it.
Day 7: As having a bad week with little positives, I decided to stay home so that hopefully I won't get into another streak of bad luck.
As being home alone, decided to order delivery dinner. Found out the shop I planned to order does not allow delivery any longer. Since I didn't want to eat Pizza again, I decided to go outside to eat. Tried a new shop. It sucks...
Honestly with all the bad luck happening, somehow I wonder if My Life Sucks...
Don't know. Hopefully things would be in the upturn soon. Hope it does :)
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Why Not Fiction!
When I started to appreciate reading, quite earlier on my life, most of the books I've read were fictional stories, mostly about Fantasy (e.g. Lords of the Ring, Narnia, Conan), and Sci-Fi (e.g. Isaac Asimov, Dune). After growing up and maturing, I've found that my taste has changed dramatically.
A quick glance through my current list of reading shows a huge slant towards biographies and non-fiction. What I've figured out that the reason why I read much more non-fiction these days is because I found that Life is indeed much stranger than fiction...
A paradox indeed!
A quick glance through my current list of reading shows a huge slant towards biographies and non-fiction. What I've figured out that the reason why I read much more non-fiction these days is because I found that Life is indeed much stranger than fiction...
A paradox indeed!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Thinking Retrospective About Pranks
There was a matter that happened during my high school years. During high school, all students were required to pay a monthly activities fee. I didn't particularly like paying the fees especially when you are constantly reminded by a picky treasurer who wasn't the most friendly person in the world. After having many arguments (I had cashflow problems), I decided on the fee payment period to change all my monthly fee into coins. It was fun to see the expression on her face when I placed all the money in front of her.
Thinking back on that little prank I pulled out, it kind of gives me the shiver when I read the following story:
On a short note, it seems that I was lucky that I didn't end up like the Idiot as in the story :P
Thinking back on that little prank I pulled out, it kind of gives me the shiver when I read the following story:
Back in the day, we had a pissed off taxpayer and his wife bring in several thousand dollars in pennies. At the time, we had real teller functions in most cities and they took their money-handling chores seriously and by-the-book. All cash payments were *required* (no exceptions) to be counted out twice in the presence of the person paying.
The manager saw the situation, got approval to put a teller on overtime, and started counting. They stressed to the taxpayers that they *must* remain present during the count. This was fairly early in the morning. After a few hours, some things began to change. Everytime the taxpayer needed to go to the bathroom, the count had to stop and everyone left the room. No lunch. No breaks.
Asshole taxpayer got bored. Then he got tired and cranky. Then he and his wife got into it. A screaming match ensued with the wife berating her husband for his stupid idea. "Yeah, you really showed them, didn't you?!" By that evening, she ripped the car keys out of his hand and left, telling him he could get a cab home. This was in a large, non-compact city with poor public transport and, at the time, only a shell of a taxi system. Telling him to catch a cab home was the equivalent of telling him to burn in hell.
Around midnight, the count finished. The jerk was shellshocked. He called a cab and proceeded to go stand out by the highway and wait for it. I don't know if it ever came.
I feel certain, however, that Mr. Idiot never tried another stunt like that.
On a short note, it seems that I was lucky that I didn't end up like the Idiot as in the story :P
Kicking the Habit?
Have you ever felt you have an addiction you want to quit, but somehow could never? I heard people had trouble to quit smoking or drinking alcohol. In my case, I'm addicted to softdrinks like coke, and I just can't seem to get rid of it. I nearly quit a year back, but after living a rather active lifestyle with more work and sporting activities, the need of sugar just simply got me back drinking sugary drinks as the body needs more energy. Been thinking on and off this issue, but can't seem to figure whether I should go one way or the other.
Hmm... I wonder if that this trivial matter, should be a huge issue, or simply something that I should just put as the least of my concerns?
Hmm... I wonder if that this trivial matter, should be a huge issue, or simply something that I should just put as the least of my concerns?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
A Parallel Story about Web Censorship in Thailand
One issue that I find rather funny is about the state of Web Censorship in Thailand. Just to rewind, about 6-7 years ago in the university I teach in, there was a web censorship program set up, in which numerous websites were blocked. Topics that were blocked included Pornography, Games, Diversions and Hobbies, and Audio/Video streaming. As being in a private university, policies like these could be dictated and implemented without consultation and consensus. I myself was rather caught by surprise by the implementation when a number of sites related with computer games that I usually read are no longer assessible. I usually like to prowl around a few local game development sites and an international site called gamaustra, which was the world's best site providing news about the game industry.
Initially I was rather somewhat annoyed, but life goes on as usual. After a few more weeks, more website were banned, including anti religious, political, and the most surprising of all was sourceforge which was the place you have to go for open-source software. That was the last straw. I found the censorship implemented to be over the top, and I've decided to start my own subversive activities. To be exact, going around internet censorship is easy if you know how. Anyone with intermediate computer knowledge will know that the use of proxy servers is the simplest form of getting around the censorship. To be exact, all you have to do is to set your browser to retrieve information that is banned from another server (proxy). So without much more thought, all my browsing in the local university net has been done with a proxy.
However after a few weeks, there were rumblings from a number of other staff and lecturers which were complaining about the sites they want to visit where censored. After comparing their list, there were many valid reasons to complain. One good example would be the banning of the CNN video/audio streaming which was completely banned. Another example would be certain programming tutorial websites. After much consultation, I decided to act by contacting the University Administrator to discuss about how the Internet Censorship in the Internet was completely out of hand. After much discussion, the administrator still refused to take down the voluntary censorship, but mentioned that he would be willing to allow reporting of websites that should not be censored. I also mentioned that the censorship was useless as it was easy to go around the system with proxies. Unabashed, the adminstrator said he can't stop the computer elite to get around it, but he said it is worth it to cut access to the majority of illiterate that are browsing websites that are inappropriate. The initial talk was unsatifactory, though I managed to get consessions that websites that are are useful could be unblocked by reporting them to the administrator. As I've already talked with numerous other sources, I had in my own hand a few pages of sites that should be unblocked along with its reason.
The system worked well for a while, however after a week, things were revered again. It seems that the adminstrators updated the list of blocked sites by keyword, and due to this reason, all the sites that were sent to unblocked, were blocked again. As the follow up discussion with the administrators was unsatisfactory (they refuse to update the list we submit them every week), so I reverted to slowly educating how to get around the censorship. After a few more months, the system was no longer in place, and all sites were available for view.
The reason why that was stopped because implementing Internet Censorship is expensive (especially if you set up a rather large amount of sites), easily subverted (with proxies), can usually end up being counter productive (censoring sites that are useful), and usually provides a negative vibe (especially in the user's view against the system).
What is strange is that the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) in Thailand has actually started a implementation of the censorship much like what my university did many years ago. The system that the MICT used was the usage of a large number of computer personnel to browse around and individually add websites to censor which is extremely expensive to maintain. The sites that were blocked initially were immoral websites, which is later extended to counter revolutionary websites. When looking at this situation, it seems that it closely parallels what has happened in the case of my university. How long the system would be maintained would either depend on the people's persistence in demanding the system to be scrapped, or either the maintainer's organization finding that the cost is expensive and decides to scrap it.
Initially I was rather somewhat annoyed, but life goes on as usual. After a few more weeks, more website were banned, including anti religious, political, and the most surprising of all was sourceforge which was the place you have to go for open-source software. That was the last straw. I found the censorship implemented to be over the top, and I've decided to start my own subversive activities. To be exact, going around internet censorship is easy if you know how. Anyone with intermediate computer knowledge will know that the use of proxy servers is the simplest form of getting around the censorship. To be exact, all you have to do is to set your browser to retrieve information that is banned from another server (proxy). So without much more thought, all my browsing in the local university net has been done with a proxy.
However after a few weeks, there were rumblings from a number of other staff and lecturers which were complaining about the sites they want to visit where censored. After comparing their list, there were many valid reasons to complain. One good example would be the banning of the CNN video/audio streaming which was completely banned. Another example would be certain programming tutorial websites. After much consultation, I decided to act by contacting the University Administrator to discuss about how the Internet Censorship in the Internet was completely out of hand. After much discussion, the administrator still refused to take down the voluntary censorship, but mentioned that he would be willing to allow reporting of websites that should not be censored. I also mentioned that the censorship was useless as it was easy to go around the system with proxies. Unabashed, the adminstrator said he can't stop the computer elite to get around it, but he said it is worth it to cut access to the majority of illiterate that are browsing websites that are inappropriate. The initial talk was unsatifactory, though I managed to get consessions that websites that are are useful could be unblocked by reporting them to the administrator. As I've already talked with numerous other sources, I had in my own hand a few pages of sites that should be unblocked along with its reason.
The system worked well for a while, however after a week, things were revered again. It seems that the adminstrators updated the list of blocked sites by keyword, and due to this reason, all the sites that were sent to unblocked, were blocked again. As the follow up discussion with the administrators was unsatisfactory (they refuse to update the list we submit them every week), so I reverted to slowly educating how to get around the censorship. After a few more months, the system was no longer in place, and all sites were available for view.
The reason why that was stopped because implementing Internet Censorship is expensive (especially if you set up a rather large amount of sites), easily subverted (with proxies), can usually end up being counter productive (censoring sites that are useful), and usually provides a negative vibe (especially in the user's view against the system).
What is strange is that the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) in Thailand has actually started a implementation of the censorship much like what my university did many years ago. The system that the MICT used was the usage of a large number of computer personnel to browse around and individually add websites to censor which is extremely expensive to maintain. The sites that were blocked initially were immoral websites, which is later extended to counter revolutionary websites. When looking at this situation, it seems that it closely parallels what has happened in the case of my university. How long the system would be maintained would either depend on the people's persistence in demanding the system to be scrapped, or either the maintainer's organization finding that the cost is expensive and decides to scrap it.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
New Changes to Blog, but Much the Same Old Stuff
The last few minutes, I've just decided to go over blogger and see some of the features in Blogger, mainly in the templates setting. Been a huge while since I've last changed the template, and I was pretty surprised in a good way on the new changes with the template system which is certainly much more helpful than the previous template system which requires extensive HTML and CSS knowledge. Not that I don't know about those technology, but as blogging just a diversion, I do think on a personal opinion that I shouldn't waste too much time on blogging. Due to that attitude, I do have to agree that it isn't surprising that this blog is a sparsely visited with very few visitors :P
Anyway, the new changes are, quite underwhelming I reckon. I prefer bland websites, which is rather like my rather spartan life-style which is quite devoid of eye-candies and things other than bare necessities, and maybe too much luxury on my books. After all of that, I've just found one picture that fits the template quite well, which was a cactus flower picture I took a few years back which was interesting. Haven't been doing much photography of late due to the lack of going into trips. I don't like taking photo of people, and without going to trips, there isn't much chance to take many. The other problem is that since having a film camera (instead of a digital one), it makes me rather too cost conscious, and partly makes me rather reluctant on taking photographs of common things.
Just to leave things off, my little brother got married, so I think I'll just post a few pictures of the wedding (p.s. as being the usher, I didn't have the chance to take a single picture).
Anyway, the new changes are, quite underwhelming I reckon. I prefer bland websites, which is rather like my rather spartan life-style which is quite devoid of eye-candies and things other than bare necessities, and maybe too much luxury on my books. After all of that, I've just found one picture that fits the template quite well, which was a cactus flower picture I took a few years back which was interesting. Haven't been doing much photography of late due to the lack of going into trips. I don't like taking photo of people, and without going to trips, there isn't much chance to take many. The other problem is that since having a film camera (instead of a digital one), it makes me rather too cost conscious, and partly makes me rather reluctant on taking photographs of common things.
Just to leave things off, my little brother got married, so I think I'll just post a few pictures of the wedding (p.s. as being the usher, I didn't have the chance to take a single picture).
Before the wedding ceremony
The Bride and Groom with the MCs
A view of the banquet room
Cutting the cake
A portrait of some of the relatives on our side of the family with the bride and groom
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